This Old House

When we bought our house in the spring of 2008, it was advertised as a "well maintained old house."  I think to qualify for "maintained" you actually have to do some maintenance on it more recently then the 1970's.  The back yard was beautiful.  The house not so much.  They had, before we moved in, been forced to update most of the electrical (there had been a power surge and blew out everything = new appliances, electrical box and wiring) and they replaced most of the plumbing at the same time. To their credit there were gas appliances and it is well insulated.   (The gas was a big deal to me since we had just paid to have our old house converted from oil to gas and then had to move and never got to enjoy the full benefits of it.) 

But I don't know when the last time it was painted.  It has the original 1940's kitchen and bathroom with water damage in the floor/subfloor (this is next on our list).  It had 60 year old carpet over the "original" (water damaged) hard wood floors and had water/ moisture ant damage in the walls in the basement, rot in the front porch awning and a sagging roof and ceiling.  The chimney needs repair.  Some of the windows were aluminum frame, but most were the original wood windows and were painted shut or or only opened a few inches.  The front door would stick when in was humid (we live in Washington, so that is almost always), the back door had gaps around it.  You get the idea.  Some of this we knew before buying it, some we discovered after.  (You can't really open walls when you are inspecting before you buy.)

There were also these huge hedges all across the front.  The one on the left by the minivan was as big as our bathroom.  

Apri 2008

`

The first thing we did was get new windows in the bedrooms (fire safety you know). 

Then we started on the yard.  The big hedges/bushes had to go.  They took up so much space on our small lot.    My kids were very upset, they don't like change and I was destroying "habitat".  They also used to climb in the big hedge and use it for a fort.  Fortunately, they got over it quickly and found new places for their forts. 

Look at that, it looks like a different house already.  

April 2009

Then we spent a year building a fence across the front (there was already a fence in the back) and putting in stairs down to the driveway and building a rockery around them.  This is another story all on its own.  But now our kids can play outside and I don't have to worry about them wandering in the street.

Next on the list was paint the house.  We started looking for paint colors.  Trip liked to really see how the color was going to look and so would paint big swaths of color.  At one point the front looked like a patch work quilt.

April 2010.

Here is an up-close of two of the colors we were considering. 

By June, we had added a third color and a new front and back doors.  

On the old front door, the handle had come off the inside, and wouldn't stay on.  The door/handle/lock were such a way that I couldn't get a new door handle, so a new door it was.  For a while we had a rope to pull the door open, but you couldn't let it latch, or you would have to run around the house and open it from the outside.
 I love our new door. 

We settled on the red.  Over a year later, this is how far we had gotten.

July 2011

 

Plus we found this rotten wood on the front porch and the wood behind the gutter there, was rotted away leaving gaping holes letting rats have their run of the attic.  Yuck!  I didn't know how to fix this.

There was a lot of work on the house.  Here is one side after we had scraped it.

This is the back of the house and the back porch.  If you look closely, you can see that the bathroom window is broken.  It was like that when we moved in.  I had figured out how to replace 2 panes of glass in some of the wood frame windows (that the kids broke).  But I couldn't figure out how to fix the aluminum frame window.

 

By now it was August, at this rate, our house wouldn't get painted for another year or longer, and we would have no life, because we were always "painting".  We decided to call in the cavalry!

We have a friend that is a house painter, Blair Suddarth (206) 731-9140, so we asked him to come and give us a bid.  Walking around the house, showing him what we had done so far, we came across some of these other things that needed fixing, like the rotted wood, the window and a broken screen.  He said, "We can fix that if you want."  When there is other work, he teams up with Cliff Barrow of ACP Painting (206) 979-3387.  They have guys that can do everything.

  

"REALLY?" I said, my eyes getting wide.  "That would be so great!"  

I asked him about the hand rail.  We have a wrought iron hand rail down our front stairs that was broken in a couple of spots making, it unsafe.  Here you can see where it is completely detached.  If you were to grab a hold of that and put your weight on it, you would be down in the flower bed.  I knew I needed it fixing, but I had no idea who to call to fix wrought iron.

Now I do.  They could fix that too. 

Blair Suddarth came back with a very reasonable bid.  

 They started a couple of days later.

We had heard from some friends of ours whose house he had also painted that he was very detail oriented and that was our experience too.  They spent a good 3 days just prepping everything.   Scraping, sanding, grinding, filling and priming.  

Then came the body paint.  They sprayed and back brushed it all, twice.  They were also able to use the 10 gallons of paint we had purchased at Lowes, but was way too shiny.  And since it was so dark, Lowes wasn't able to get it in a different sheen.  It was supposed to be satin, but looked like semigloss.  Blair knew where to go to get the paint color matched perfectly in a flat and they mixed it all together making a nice soft sheen.

 

Here is is with the body colored.  I love the red!

 The painters started on the trim, while some others fixed the rotted wood, the hand rail, two broken screens to the crawl space and the window in the bathroom.   They even threw in painting the all the wrought iron.  

Everyone was great to work with.  When ever I noticed something, they were either already on top of it or happy to do it.  I noticed that one of the hand rails was still a little wobbly after they had fixed it.  Upon inspecting it, it was missing a screw into the cement.  They fixed it.  I wanted both panes of glass in the bathroom replaced instead of one.  They fixed it.  All of the workers who came to our house were respectful and friendly.  

I paid 1/3 down when they started and paid the rest after I had a final walk around.  The only thing added to the bill was for the extra pane of glass I asked them to replace that wasn't figured into the original bid and they did so many little extra things.

Luckily we had nice weather in September. 

Here is the finished house.  

Here are some of the details.  This is the place the rotted wood was.  They took it all out and replaced it.  

Here is the side I showed you above with only primer on it.

One of the screens they replaced

The back porch and back door they painted.

The window they replaced (it still has the old screen on it)

They even painted the outside of the vinyl windows, when I didn't like the white window frame with the trim.

I cannot say how pleased and happy we were with their work and their workers.

If you need some painting done, inside or out or have another project and you need an honest company, I don't hesitate to recommend them.  I asked Blair what all they do, and they have done strictly painting projects all the way up to remodels and everything in-between.  He told me about removing walls and putting in beams and crafting beautiful sturdy hand rails.
I can already think of a few more things I want to ask them about.

If you need some work done, call Blair Suddarth (206) 731-9140.  He will take care of you.

Here are the before and after shots once again.